~ Life & Real Estate

Monthly Archives: April 2011

I’ve noticed a trend in the real estate market over the past 10 years in relation to gas prices.

It really makes sense that when gas prices skyrocket, the rural areas of the city take quite a hit on prices and number of showings and as a counter to that, the urban areas see much more activity—-especially if it’s a walkable city. The market starts reacting at about $3.50/gallon.

It’s also important to keep in mind that the actual real estate agents take a hit as well. How many houses do you look at before you decide on one?? Sometimes about 30 homes all over town. That’s a LOT of fuel. The lesson here is that each buyer and agent should meet before touring homes to try and really narrow down their needs and expectations. This will save everyone, not just gas money, but time as well.

The cost of being a REALTOR has increased year over year and the rising gas prices just make it that much harder to ‘afford’ the business. This also causes a decline in the number of people wanting to come into the business as a new agent. We always need new agents because of the turnover rate in the business. So, if it’s something you’ve always been interested in, I highly enourage you to start taking the steps to become licensed. This is a rare time for new agents to have almost more opportunity than they have in the past. It used to be that everyone (and their brother) had their license. Since that isn’t true anymore—-that means less competition for the new agent.

I really don’t know if it’s much better in other areas, but one thing the Kansas City area real estate agents have always struggled with is finding rental properties for customers.
You know how it goes…a customer calls and they’re relocating to the area, but they’d like to get to know the area before they commit to purchasing a home. Or…you have customers going through a divorce and a spouse needing a rental. Or…you have the couple that would like to move out while their home is on the market to make it easier to show and sell. There’s 100 scenarios for needing rentals and we get the calls non-stop.

The problem? Rental properties are not listed on our MLS. Nor are they all in any one place…or so I thought.

So, I was tearing my hair out the other day explaining to a gentleman from out of town how our rental market works. The property owner or manager puts a handwritten “For Rent” sign in the yard and then posts it to some website like Craig’s List, the classifieds or their personal rental site. And, for the most part, real estate agents don’t get paid anything when they bring a renter to a property. So, this poor guy had called around and was terribly frustrated at the response he was getting. Doesn’t anyone want to rent him a property? So, yours truly, did her good deed for the day and explained why all the agents he had encountered seemed ‘uncaring’ about his rental needs.

I told him I would happily try and search for places and ask around to see what I could find for him.

That’s when I found it….

OODLE!!
OMG, this has changed my whole outlook on rentals. Oodle is a website that pulls information from other websites to compile the information in one place.

And now, I’m putting my hair back into place and sharing this great tip with my friends.

P.S. Please don’t brag if you’re in one of those awesome markets that embraces rental property. I just can’t take it! 🙂

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Joanna jumped into the real estate business in 2000 and never looked back. A glance through her resume would have anyone confused because she’s actually never left the company with which she started. Change in the market and changes in ownership and locations have filled her 13 years in the real estate world. Change is a scary word for some, but Joanna has embraced it with courage and made the decision to not only survive, but to thrive. To break it down Prudential Snook was sold to Prudential Carter-Duffey in 2006, which was sold to Prudential Kansas City in 2009, which then rebranded themselves with a new franchise (Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate) in late 2012. Her personal motto is ‘Consistent Pursuit of Improvement’, which is clear in her dedication to her company, people and local real estate association.